Don’t know if anyone else heard, but it appears Toronto signed a player — Tavares, I believe, not sure of the pronunciation — which some media outlets have been covering. While the rest of us clean out our ears, here are the musings and meditations on the world of sports.

• Taken in isolation, the signings of Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and Tim Schaller add grit, size and defensive awareness to the Vancouver Canucks’ bottom six, and those aren’t bad things.

The problem is the Canucks have squandered the luxury of viewing things in isolation. Owing to 26th-, 29th- and 28th-place finishes, every one of their moves is now viewed against the backdrop of their last three seasons and the team’s future, which is why these signings weren’t, er, universally endorsed by the faithful.

Next year the Canucks might be harder to play against and better defensively, but they’re now committed to Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Sam Gagner, Beagle, Schaller and Roussel for the next two years minimally and in the case of Eriksson, Sutter, Beagle and Roussel, three years and beyond.

That isn’t a huge problem next season, when most of their young forwards will likely require seasoning in Utica. But two years from now Nikolay Goldobin will be 24, Adam Gaudette will be 23, Jonathan Dahlen and Lukas Jasek will be 22 and Kole Lind and Jonah Gadjovich will be 21. Not all of them will be ready, but when you sketch out a depth chart, there isn’t a lot of room for the Canucks’ youngsters in the near future.

While we’re on the subject, the Canucks have seven defencemen signed for next season, with Troy Stecher to come, before you get to Olli Juolevi and, possibly, Quinn Hughes.

Maybe there are other moves to be made. Maybe there will be deals to free up space on the Canucks’ roster. But It’s asking a lot of Canucks fans to be patient while the organization works through this process. The faithful have already been through enough. The sense here is they don’t want to wait one day longer than necessary to see those young players.

• On a related note, assuming Elias Pettersson starts the season on the wing, Sutter and Beagle become the Canucks’ second- and third-line centres. Sutter had 26 points last season. Beagle had 22. Not sure how this makes them better.

Toronto Maple Leafs John Tavares speaks to the media at his locker after signing on for a seven-year $77 million contract on Sunday July 1, 2018.Jack Boland /
Jack Boland/Toronto Sun

• Only the most churlish among us can’t be happy for Leafs fans these days. True, the signing of John Tavares will give rise to the kind of coverage which nauseates the rest of the country. But, in this case, the hype will be justified.

With Tavares, the Leafs become one of the three NHL teams — Washington and Pittsburgh are the others — whose games become an event. They were already fun to watch last season. With Tavares in the lineup, it figures they’ll become the most entertaining team in the league.

Or so we’ll be told. But having a powerhouse in Toronto isn’t the worst thing for the NHL or hockey in Canada. It’s been a while, 2011 to be precise, since a Canadian-based team created this level of excitement. And look at the bright side. Hating on Toronto is something of a national pastime. Think of the joy the Tavares era is going to bring.

• Not sure if the Lakers are building a basketball team or a reality show but any squad that includes, for the moment at least, LeBron, Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Lonzo Ball and his father makes for appointment viewing. Don’t know if they’re any closer to beating Golden State but no matter where they go from here, they’ll have our attention.

B.C. Lions quarterback Jonathon Jennings (10) makes the throw against the Edmonton Eskimos during first half CFL action in Edmonton, Alta., on Friday June 29, 2018.JASON FRANSON /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

• It’s still early days but there was a sinking feeling while the B.C. Lions were picked apart by the Eskimos on Friday night. You can point to any number of failures on the Lions’ part but, in the CFL, it comes down to the quarterback, and Jonathon Jennings isn’t providing the level of play needed to win consistently.

This issue also looks like it’s coming to a head. The Lions’ next four games are a home-and-home with Winnipeg, at Ottawa and at Calgary. Those four games shape up as something of a plebiscite on Jennings’s starting job.

• And finally. If you went by Twitter, the reaction to the Canucks’ moves in and around Sunday’s moves wasn’t, to put it mildly, entirely positive, and that’s to be expected. This is Canada. Fans have strong opinions and the Canucks left themselves wide open to second-guessing with the signings of Beagle, Roussel and Schaller.

But it’s one thing to be critical. It’s another to be crude and ignorant in that criticism. One of the recurring themes in and around Sunday’s events was the media doesn’t hold the Linden-Benning regime accountable, that we’re too soft on them.

Sorry, don’t get it. I’m not sure if the masses want hysteria or bloodshed, but you can be critical without being obnoxious. There’s already enough screeching in our world. There’s nothing wrong with reasonable people disagreeing reasonably.

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